Marjorie Strom

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May 22, 2015, 7:10 PM

Promoting excellence in the periphery

As I write this, my son is taking the second stage of testing for joining the Israel team for the International Physics Olympics. The first stage was held at schools throughout the country, with several thousand eleventh graders taking...

Apr 26, 2015, 12:20 AM

Free-Range Kids, Anarchist Kibbutz Style

Scene 1 (Oct. 2013, Friday afternoon): Our youngest son's 11th birthday is on Saturday. We had promised him that, like last year, we would make pizza and have a sleep-out in the date plantation, but we would do it...

Apr 18, 2015, 3:14 PM

Let’s discuss values

In my last blog I wrote about the problems of kosher milk in Israel. The blog received more comments than usual, mainly from Orthodox readers correcting my understanding of Halacha. Some were personal, including one that claimed I "want...

Apr 1, 2015, 12:37 PM

Got kosher milk?

The Israeli rabbinate's kashrut rules for dairy products are gratuitous, costly and harmful to the cows

Mar 21, 2015, 1:47 PM

They REALLY don’t count us: Who stole 60 votes for Meretz from Kibbutz Samar?

Along with 192 other people, I voted on Tuesday at Kibbutz Samar, in full belief that my vote would be counted. I took my 12-year-old son with me, showed him how I check that I have only one note...

Mar 18, 2015, 2:50 PM

So what do these election results mean?!?

On the face of it, the election results are a huge victory for the Likud. Bibi was able once again to show himself as the underdog and to galvanize his base, winning more seats than any poll predicted. I...

Mar 14, 2015, 2:37 PM

I’m voting Meretz again, even though it cost me NIS 5,000 a year. Voting for Yesh Atid is suicide for kibbutznikim.

We kibbutznikim have a bad habit of voting according to our ideology, even if it hurts individual specific interests, and the politicians know that. Thus both Ofir Pines (Labor) as the Minister of the Interior and Yossi Sarid as...

Mar 7, 2015, 1:16 PM

Israel-Jordan water agreement: It’s not about the Dead Sea

On the water deal: Whatever gets Jordanian and Israeli officials to smile at each other these days is positive

Mar 5, 2015, 9:49 AM

Another, Little-Known, Housing Crisis

The Israeli housing crisis has been in the headlines for quite a while now. At the same time a different housing crisis has been taking place quietly, out of the headlines, for several years already: Cooperative kibbutzim cannot receive...

Feb 21, 2015, 6:23 PM

Farmers in the Periphery: Bennett’s “Mighty Agricultural Cartel Lobby”

Naftali Bennett is very proud of single-handedly breaking "the mighty agricultural cartel lobby" and lowering the cost of food in Israel. As someone who has lived in the Arava desert since 1987, I still don't know who or what...

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About Me

A member of Kibbutz Samar, Marjorie has lived in the Arava since 1987, working as a dairy farmer, treasurer, grant writer, and chief cat-herd. She currently directs the Southern Arava Agricultural Research and Development Center. Marjorie is married, with three children aged 12-22. She grew up in NJ and holds a BA from Cornell University and an MSc in agricultural economics from Hebrew University.